Unwilling to bridge a nearly $3 million gap, general manager Bill Stoneman set a midnight deadline for Wednesday and when that passed, the offer expired and the Angels say their pursuit of Weaver has officially ended.

They have to do something about the draft. Make it more like the NBA and slot the signing bonus based on when you were drafted, at least the first couple rounds, and then have some sort of limit a little lower than the lowest slot for the rest of the rounds. Let teams trade draft picks, as well. It would free up more money for players than have proven they can play, and give the poorer teams a better chance at rebuilding through the draft or trading their picks for established players. I know the Angels aren't one of the poor teams, but guys who have never played professionally holding out for an $8 to $10 million bonus is crazy. I hope Weaver rots just like all the other Boras clients who balked at signing reasonable signing bonuses. The man is a magician getting established players huge contracts, but is poison on amateurs. Teams don't want to deal with him and when dealing with p.r. and such, they have the upper hand when dealing with draft picks. No one is going to call the Angels cheap for not signing him. No one boycotted USCF because the White Sox passed on Bobby Hill and Bobby Seay.

Teams have to be apprehensive about giant signing bonuses and I can't believe that Boras is willing to sacrafice the career of his client for 20%. Just look at our Joe B. $5.3m for all that is great in baseball